


i know you, i think i do

by orphan_account



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Family Feels, Gen, Sort of? - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-10
Updated: 2012-12-10
Packaged: 2017-11-20 18:48:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/588530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Her mother is bad/her mother is brave</p>
            </blockquote>





	i know you, i think i do

Her mother is bad. Lian realizes this when she is four and pushed into a cabinet for hide and seek. But her mother hates hide and seek at their house, says it makes her anxious, so Lian peeks, uses her stick-like arms to poke the cabinet door open a nudge. Lian never peeks when they really play, she likes to win too much. There is a skinny man in a suit, his voice all hard laughter and his skin pulled too tight across his face. The man talks to Lian's mother and Lian's mother grabs a kitchen knife. There's a threat and Lian sees it, the way the man looks at her mother like she's someone worth fearing. Lian does not speak out of turn for the next week, until her mother buys her pudding and tells her to buck up.

Her mother is short. Lian realizes this when she is twelve and spewing words at her father, stopping only when her mother steps between them. Even pre-teenaged, Lian's eyes meet the crown of her mother's hairline. For a moment, it gives Lian pause - she is taller than her mother, bigger in some fashion. Bigger means winning, means better. But then her mother raises an eyebrow and says exactly two words in Vietnamese - the universal sign of someone Meaning Business, even amongst her extended family. She sighs and gives in, biting her tongue.

Her mother is mean. Lian realizes this when she is fifteen and clamoring for her mother to 'please, please, please' not kill that poor boy, or tell her father. She's much taller than her mother now, but her mother's spindly fingers wrap around Lian's thin arms just the same and tug her to a car that smells like pine and some intangible thing that Lian associates with her mother's magician friend. She's attempting to comb her hair into something that doesn't look like a tangled mess and very nearly points out that she could be doing much worse, but hears the bits of several Vietnamese curse words under her mother's breath and swallows her response quickly.

Her mother is brave. Lian realizes this when she is nineteen. Lian's arms are still too thin and her mother still clucks Vietnamese at her angrily when she comes home too late (less so because the boy is nice and his hair is very nearly red and he calls everyone 'ma'am' or 'sir') and Lian now towers over her mother, nearly equal height as her father. Her mother lays too still on a concrete table, a doctor who isn't quite a doctor speaking over her. Lian knows that her father is somewhere else; smashing his fists into things to distract himself from mental with the physical. She took a psychology class once, so she knows this sort of thing. Lian feels a sense of responsibility to right this, but her mother shielded her from the life that both her parents lived. Instead, Lian nods that yes, yes, that is her mother with a broken lip and cracked tooth; yes around that gash on her shoulder is the woman who raised her. She sighs and bites her lip to keep from saying that no, it can't be her. Her mother is strong.

 

Her daughter is good. Jade watches from the cracks between her eyelids, cheating at hide and seek like she used to with her sister, as Lian shimmies up a tree and onto a limb. Her daugher is six and looks like her father when she concentrates. The branch bows low and Jade scrambles up. The girl looks up with surprise, catching the sound and making Jade's heart swell with pride. The branch shakes and Jade yells.

Her daughter is big. Jade realizes this when a thirteen year old Lian tackles her uncle, her arms flying at him akimbo and nearly knocking a lamp from its stand. Lian looks like a paper girl, stretched tall and thin with a smattering of freckles on her shoulders that defy logic and genetics. There's a shriek of laughter and Jade watches as her daughter stretches on tiptoe to touch the ceiling fan. There's a thump as Lian attempts to grab ahold of the blade and to stop her, Jade shouts.

Her daughter is kind. Jade thinks this as Lian helps a girl on crutches across the stage at graduation. It isn't even Lian's graduation; she's a junior, but the other girl is a friend. Lian wears her hair in a plait, her eyes focused solely on the other girl, not drawing attention to herself. Nonetheless, when the speaker announces that Lian Harper is assisting the girl across the stage, Jade screams cheers for her.

Her daughter is brave. Jade knows this as she darts around a corner. Her daughter is at a community college, too unsure of a major to let her parents spend money on a larger school. Lian is smart and brave and full of spirit and heart and a million things Jade and Roy both lack. She will manage, Jade thinks as the man grabs her shoulders. There's a knife on her shoulder and Jade shrieks. Her last thought is that her daughter will be strong.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know what this is entirely? I have a lot of Jade Nguyen feelings, that's really all that prompted this.


End file.
